ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

I disagree with the comment that was made about Jamie's comment. I for one do not have a problem with spanking a child for a wrong action. The problem comes in where a spanking turns into abuse, and a parent knows the difference. I am tired of people who call themselves, "child advocates" advocating against spanking. Spanking is not something that man came up with, but spanking is a biblical principal..."spare the rod, spoil the child"....sound familiar? Jamie Fox turned out to be a wonderful, powerful and very successful young man as a result of the rearing he received from his grandmother. How shocking and sad it is to hear whipping being recommended by an Oscar??? How shocking and sad it would be if he had not been whipped? How shocking and sad it would be if were in jail? How shocking and sad it would be if he were dead because of the lack of discipline? How shocking and sad it is for someone to take a a life altering moment, winning an Oscar for the very first time, and bring negativity upon it? yes, you are truly right...How shocking...How sad.

We sang, (to the tune of "Are You Sleeping?")
"Tops and Bottoms
Tops and Bottoms
In between
In between
All around your hands
All around your hands
Make them clean
Make them clean

The kids would wet thier hands, put soap on them, and then sing the song. They clean the tops and bottoms of their hands and then put their hands together to clean in between their fingers. On, "make them clean", they would rinse and shake the water off their hands into the sink.
They had a blast singing the song...the 3yr olds especially!

1) We have a hand washing song, sung to the Mozart tune, more familar as "ABC's" or "Twinkle Twinkle":

Wash your hands, wash them good,
With soap and water, like you should.
First the palms, and then the back.
So we won't worry 'bout a germ attack.
Wash your hands, wash them good,
With soap and water, like you should.

2) We have our water at the bathroom sinks pre mixed so that it's warm. Previously, when it was cold, we encountered much more resistance to hand washing.

3) Located close to a major medical edication /research inbstitution we have parents in our program who are in the medical/research profession. As part of our "parent occupations" program (wherein parents share their work with the children) one parent brought petri dishes with agar culture and did an experiment with the germs off the children's hands (unwashed, washed, etc.). As the cultures grew (or didn't) it provided lots of comparison and discussion.

Having staff and children get in the habit of washing their hands for germ prevention is paramount. The “tricks” for getting the staff and children to wash their hands are varying. One way we hit home the spread of germs, and therefore the importance of washing hands is to show staff members and children how easily germs are spread. Since germs are invisible, we illustrate their spread by making them visible, by dipping our hands in flour. As we train staff during a meeting or speak with children during group time, we go about our routines of touching things that we would normally come in contact with. The flour on our hands leaves “germs” behind which can easily be seen by all and transferred from one place to another by others that come in contact with it. To show proper washing, we rinse our hands under water and the flour turns sticky and remains on our hands. Once we properly wash with water and soap for the appropriate amount of time the flour “germs” are then removed. This exercise really hits home the concept of germ spread, which is often abstract for children.

When we ask young children to wash their hands many times each day it becomes boring for them. To keep things exciting for my classroom of toddlers we occassionally add a drop of food coloring to the liquid soap to keep things interesting. They get excited to use the different colors and tend to spend more time scrubbing to make colored bubbles.

We have designed a small poster (with a picture of a caterpillar on it) demonstrating washing it's "hands" with soap and water. Each sink in our center has the same poster mounted above it. The children have been encouraged to sing the following song. (Sing to tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat)

"Wash, wash, wash your hands,
Wash them every day,
We scrub, and scrub, and scrub, and scrub
to Wash the germs away!"

Parents have informed us that the tune has also been adapted at home to "brush your teeth" or "take your bath". This technique of teaching children to wash has been very effective.

"Go, Blow and Throw. . . then please wash your hands!". That is what we tell a child who is fiddling with or picking his/her nose. We ask them to GO get a tissue; BLOW into the tissue and then THROW the tissues in the trash can. Then they know to wash hands right away and turn the faucet off using the paper towel. We also have been teaching the children (and teachers and providers) to sneeze or cough into their sleeve, covering their mouths/nose in this way. We make a "game" of this and tell the children to "Catch your cough" and they know right away that they don't use their hands to do this. I can't quote the stats off hand, but know that studies have shown a big reduction in spread of illness by using a few of these better health practices.

In my 24 yrs. working directly with children as a care provider, a preschool teacher, music teacher, trainer and consultant to child care providers, I've washed many pairs of little hands! The trick is in getting them excited about washing their hands. We always use "songs" to entice the little ones' interest in this and almost any activity. The Bubble Song is one I made up and is the kids' favorite. Try making up a simple, catchy tune and having the kids help you with the lyrics! Or, use a familiar tune and piggy-back the song with your own lyrics. When it is time to wash hands as a group (i.e. before eating, after toileting, or after playing with messy activities) have a preschooler or older child start "the song". Others will follow. Even those that are feeling grumpy will "fall into line" and happily engage in hand-washing, most of the time. Whatever method you use, MAKE IT FUN! It's sure to be a winner!

I want to be sure that you are aware of a new and exciting child care health and safety resource. When you go to www.globalhealthychildcare.org, you will find detailed information about illness prevention, injury prevention, food preparation, healthy spaces, caring for sick children, emergency preparedness, healthy teeth, and safety solutions. There are downloadable mobiles and self-evaluation tools! Check it out!

This is a handwashing technique I use in small group:
1. Put a big gob of petroleum jelly in their hand and have them spread it to both hands.
2. Try to wash it off with cold water
3. Try to wash it off with warm water
4. Now add soap to the warm water and rub hard
5. Talk to the children about how you cannot get germs off
without soap and warm water and you cannot see
germs with your eyes allown.

In regards to handwashing, the procedure outlined by Dr. Aronson included the following:
* Dry the hands and move to the clean activity in a way that does not put germs back on the skin.
This is too vague. Our suggestion is to teach the children to turn the faucet off with their paper towel and then through the towel away in the trashcan.
Hanging a poster right above the sink with photos of the procedure so that the children can follow the steps has proven to be very effective at our preschool!

I teach my kids to sneeze and cough into their elbow with head down (rather than covering their mouth with their hand). They get really good at this and it becomes a habit quickly.

Two children wipe the tables clean with a mild degreaser after lunch time and when we've just finished art and craft or some other messy activity. We sing a song called "Bits of paper" as we clean up the room before home time.

Vigilant handwashing is paramount in our war against germs. Germs are such an anomaly to children, what are these invisible things adults are concerned about? One idea we have used, rub a little vaseline on childrens hands (tell them this represents their body oils) then sprinkle with cinnamon (germs) now go to sink and wash. This exercise helps children to realize how hard and how long they have to scrub to remove germs. We also asked a high school science teacher (one of our parents) to get us pictures of germs that cause some of our recurring illnesses, colds, diarrhea etc. The book Those Mean Nasty Disgusting Germs is read often and children draw their own picture of what they think germs might look and these are posted near sinks. In circletime, every so often we sing the Bubble Gum song (you blow bubble gum into a big bubble and it pops, then it sticks right to my - parts of your body), after which we talk through washing hands. All this AND of course germs are still shared!!! Gee, those germs really are Mean, Nasty and Disgusting.

We keep hand sanitizer next to each box of kleenex in the classroom. When a child wipes or blows they then use a small amount of the sanitizer. We also do a lesson at the start of each year on using a kleenex wrapped around their finger to remove stubborn "buggers"-children are going to pick their noses anyway and this shows them a sanitary way to do it.

When we wash hands we sing the ABC song to help them lather for a while, then at the end we changed the words to "now I've sung my abc's I can rinse the soap off of me" It seems to help them wash their whole hands and lather for a while.

The one "trick" I learned that isn't widely practiced is to teach children (and staff) to sneeze into their sleeves at the elbow, since that part of the anatomy seldom touches toys and other children, and tissues are not usually found in time for sneezes.